Jhudora's Weakness: Part Three

     "You dare sleep in the holy place?" thundered the biggest one, which I assumed to be the leader.

     I was disgusted with this horrifying display of a Mynci specimen.

     "Uh, like, yeah." Said KK, who had just woken up, and stood blinking in what little sunlight shone through the trees. She was oblivious to the fact that we were surrounded, and was clearly not realizing the serious situation here.

     "Oh." The Mynci seemed to be at loss for words.

     Then, recovering, he shouted, "Well, you shall pay, ye who dare anger the gods!"

     Suddenly, I was struck with an idea.

     "We are the gods, you fool!" I snapped. "Can you not see?"

     The Myncis gaped at us, before bowing down, apologizing hastily. While they were unable to see us, I gestured to my pets to follow me, and we ran away.

     Then, out of nowhere, I was mysteriously handed a lottery ticket.

     "A lot of good that'll do me," I grumbled.

     All of the sudden, I found 20 Neopoints on the ground. As I stared at the coins, the beginnings of a plan tickled at my brain. I gathered my pets around me, and whispered to them.

     The Myncis caught up to us. The leader walked up to us and said angrily, "If you are the gods, then why do you flee? And where is the prosperity that you bring us?"

     With good fortune, it seemed they wanted something, and thankfully, because of my plan, I had something to give to them.

     "We do not flee, we leave, for you failed to recognize us, and treated us with hostility." Nina said, with a flash of genius.

      "Here," I said, "These are for you." I handed them the 20 coins, each worth one Neopoint, their gold colour glinting as I moved them. "They are magical disks."

     The Myncis celebrated with joy, for they enjoyed the mystical gifts their gods had given them. Thankfully none of us mentioned that since we were females, we were not gods, but goddesses.

     "So, yo, we're gone now," said Ro.

     We began walking back to where the faerie was. On the way there, a little Snicklebeast walked up to us, and growled. Ro gasped, picked it up and hugged it to her.

     "You'll be the perfect Battledome partner, won't you, little guy? You're a good boy, you'll help me defeat evil monster things, won't you?"

     That would have surprised me, but with all the strange things happening, I could no longer be surprised by anything.

     The Petpet nodded its furry head, and I frowned.

     "Ro, you have to give it a name!"

     I figured if Ro was going to have a Petpet, she should have something to call it by, just as I had to name her.

     Ro nodded, and began talking to her new Petpet about the name.

     "Well, yo, let's see, it can't be anything too cuddly, because then the evil monsters will laugh at us. And it can't be too ferocious either, because we have to catch them off guard, and not let them know you can attack. And it has to be a name we both like. Maybe some letters from my name…let's see, ah yes, okay I've narrowed the name choices down to Lio, Kolta and Roko. Now, I'll ask you and you can tell me what you think of them. Do you like Lio?"

     The Snicklebeast stuck its tongue out at Ro. I was a bit skeptical about that reaction.

     "Do you like Kolta?"

     The petpet licked its lips. I raised an eyebrow.

     "Do you like Roko?"

     It started to bury itself in what it thought was a pile of snow, but was actually just a dirt clod. I burst out laughing.

     Ro glared at me. I stopped giggling, and put on a poker face.

     "Yo, I think the best reaction was to the name Kolta, so, my lil' Battledoming friend, your name is now Kolta!"

     Eventually we reached the faerie. She was sitting on the stump, staring off into space. The former queen's eyes were blank and misty, and it was clear she was thinking about something of great importance to her.

     I cleared my throat, and the faerie started, then looked at me, grinning, her sad eyes shining with happiness. It was very strange to see sad eyes shining with happiness, very strange indeed.

     She looked at us, and said, "You are never going to believe this. I think I know how to escape, but it will require the help of one or more of your Neopets. Do you agree to let them help?"

     "You should ask them, after all, it is them who will be doing the helping." I replied.

     "Okay, then. Do you young ones agree to help me?"

     "Like, why not? Sure."

     "Yo, fine with moi!"

     "Yes! Then I'll have a better adventure."

     "Under the circumstances, I agree." Nina said reluctantly. It was clear to me she was nervous about what she might be required to do.

     "Okay. Have any of you ever been blessed by a dark faerie?" She asked.

     Ro opened her mouth to agree, but Jhudora appeared in front of her.

     "You are all going to the dungeons!" she shouted, and suddenly the five of us, me, Blue, KK, Nina and Ro were sitting on the floor of a dungeon, chained to the wall.

     The dungeon was cramped, and the walls were slimy. The floor was dusty, hard, and grimy. There were bars at the front and sadly, just by glancing at them, I could tell that neither of my Neopets, nor I, would be able to slip through them.

     Jhudora walked up to the bars.

     "Now, my prisoners, eat! For it's no good to me if you starve."

     And she shoved five dirty bowls made of clay filled with a repulsive grey goopy mush, and five cups of dirty brown water. None of us liked the food, and all my Neopets wished they had their lists with us now, to give to Jhudora. Not that it would make much of a difference, though.

     We were never going to escape, I thought sadly.

     Then I remembered Kolta, Ro's new petpet. I looked around, but I couldn't see him anywhere. Then, he popped out from underneath his new owner.

     "Ro!" I whispered, "Can Kolta fit between the bars?"

     Ro looked at me in astonishment, and slowly nodded.

     "Good, could you tell him to sneak out and grab the keys?"

     "Where are the keys?" asked Nina.

     I frowned, and looked around. I dragged myself over to the bars, just barely making it with the chain preventing me from going any farther. I pressed my face against them and looked around. There! I saw them, they were just to the left of the cell, and there was the lock! Right above my head, it was a simple contraption.

     "There," I said quietly, and pointed at them.

     Ro talked to Kolta for a second, then Kolta squeezed between the bars and grabbed the keys. And ran off with them!

     I frowned, yet again. This was a major complication.

     I continued to watch through the bars, and then saw Kolta tear off one of the keys with his teeth. Holding it in his mouth, he dug a hole, and buried the rest of the keys on the ring. Then, he ran back to us, stuck the key in the lock, and turned it. Suddenly, The dungeon disappeared.

     We were back in the clearing, only the faerie wasn't. Worriedly, we realized that the faerie must be in a different dungeon. Now we had to figure out how to get back to the faerie.

     But first, I decided, we should try what the faerie had suggested, or at least what I thought she was going to suggest.

     "Ro!" I said excitedly, "What were you blessed with?"

     Ro got a thoughtful look on her face, and for a minute, I thought she wasn't going to be able to remember. But just when I thought all hope was lost, she jumped up and announced, "Yo, mama, I know! It was Night Vision I was blessed with!"

     Grinning, I said, "Then use it!"

     "Uh, how?" Ro asked me. "Yo, dude, it's not dark."

     I hadn't thought of that.

     "Well, why don't you just try it anyway? Pretend it's dark. Maybe you'll see something, or something will happen." I wanted to try and stay hopeful, for the sake of my pets, even though I was really dejected.

     "Well, okay, dude, whatever you say," Ro said doubtfully.

     I watched, as Ro's eyes suddenly grew much larger in proportion, turning into large orbs with gigantic pupils in the center. Suddenly, she gasped.

     "Yo, it's her, mama, I can see Jhudora!"

To be continued…